Project Almanac (2014)

The Gist:

Desperate to get into a top quality college that his mother, Kathy (Amy Landecker), can’t afford David Raskin (Jonny Weston) decides that the best thing he can do is apply for scholarships and wow the school with an amazing experiment that will make them sign him up straight away.

Disappointingly though even with the help of his best friends Quinn (Sam Lerner), Adam (Allen Evangelista) and his sister Christina (Virginia Gardner) none of the experiments seem to work or have that ‘wow’ factor. That all changes though when they uncover ‘Project Almanac’ a time travel machine design that David’s father, Ben (Gary Weeks), was working on before his death in a car accident. Soon the project is well on its way to being built and even brings David’s crush, Jessie (Sofia Black-D’Elia) into the group.

The Review:

Sadly it seems that Project Almanac had people lining up to take aim at it before it was even released which is sad because this is a film that is going to be lapped up by anyone that has enjoyed teenage sci-fi shows such as Smallville and Roswell over the years. Yes the filmmakers made a monumental mistake when they included footage of an actual plane crash that killed people in the film, but you know what that is hardly a reason to try and sabotage a film before it has even hit cinemas.

Surprisingly this actually seems to be a time when MTV Films have strangely nailed their market. Given the film doesn’t exactly bring anything new to the table when it comes to time travel or time travel logic although at least the ‘science’ of the film doesn’t fall back on itself like seems to be the case with so many modern sci-fi films. Then there is the fact that director Dean Israelite (surprisingly a first time feature director) and the screenwriting team involved with this film have delivered one of the most natural feeling sci-fi films to have surfaced in a long time.

As is the case with many of the elements of this film it is that natural effect that both makes this film work but also has the ability to get on the nerves of anybody watching it. Israelite’s choice of making this a found-footage film with hand-held cameras is both a crown and a thorn in your side at the same time. Teamed up with some amazingly natural dialogue between the teens the handheld camera work does actually make you feel like you are part of the action and watching real events, but at the same time during some of the action sequences it can get a bit nauseating especially on a big screen. Still getting the audience to forget they are watching a film and make them believe what they are watching is real in a sci-fi film is a feat upon itself so the filmmakers certainly need some praise for that.

The other big plus is that while it may be filed in the science fiction section Project Almanac also tackles some very real topics for any young adults watching it. The stress of getting accepted in college, bullying and the dangers of trying too hard to make a teenage romance work are all explored in great depth… meaning this isn’t simply a film that can just be simply discarded as just another time travel film. Yes surprisingly a MTV film does actually deliver a little bit of depth.

Likewise the young cast of virtual no names all step up in a bid to deliver the realism to the screen as well. Despite limited chances in the past Jonny Weston seems to embrace the leading man role extremely well and he is well supported by Sam Lerner and Allen Evangelista… the latter being someone who it seems would be well suited to comedy as well. Meanwhile, Sofia Black-D’Elia and Virginia Gardner put in good performances to suggest that grouped together with their looks they should be getting a number of roles in Hollywood over the next few years.

The Verdict:

So many of the films aimed at the teenage market these days end up being complete tripe, so coming away from Project Almanac and discovering that it is actually a fairly decent teenage sci-fi that actually looks good was a complete surprise. While the fact action and ‘teenage speak’ may be a put off for some older audiences, the young and the young at heart certainly won’t be disappointed by Project Almanac.

Certificate: 12A
Directors: Dean Israelite
Starring: Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Sam Lerner, Allen Evangelista, Virginia Gardner
Running Time: 106 minutes
Release Date: 16th February 2015